


Yeah I've Tried (To Leave it all Behind)

by butterfly_wings



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon-Compliant, Fluff and Angst, It's all about the YEARNING, M/M, Team as Family, takes place during kenma's third year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26704885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterfly_wings/pseuds/butterfly_wings
Summary: Kenma really, really misses Kuroo. Which is ridiculous, because he's had a while to get used to the idea of Kuroo being gone.But that doesn't stop everything from feeling so...empty.for haikyuu! week 2020 day four: childhood friends
Relationships: Haiba Lev/Yaku Morisuke, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 134
Collections: Tumblr Haikyuu!! Week 2020





	Yeah I've Tried (To Leave it all Behind)

**Author's Note:**

> title from Girl in Red's Rue bc im a sad gay 
> 
> also this is for haikyuu week day four but im a fucking clown and i did forget that childhood friends means, ya know, childhood. basically it's an extremely loose interpretation of the prompt (it's childhood friends in the sense that kuroken are childhood friends, okay, that's it, i get it, im stupid). or we can say it's for fave duo!! ~~except that title belongs to bokuaka bc theyre my faves oops~~

Kuroo is running late, and Kenma is annoyed.

It’s the first day of school, and Kuroo always makes a big deal about first impressions and is always telling Kenma to pay attention to the clock and not be late and to stop playing video games, so really, it’s rude of him to just be late like this. Kenma’s been waiting for about fifteen minutes and normally he’d enjoy that time to play video games, but Kuroo hasn’t said anything about running late and it’s bothering him.

He pulls out his phone to badger Kuroo about it just as a message from Yamamoto comes in.

“Dude, where are you?” it reads. “Fukunaga and I are saving you a seat! You don’t want to be late for your first day as a third-year!”

All of a sudden, Kenma feels his world drop, flip, and re-orient itself around him. He gazes blankly at his phone screen, the innocent message from Yamamoto shining up at him.

Kuroo isn’t running late. But Kenma. Oh, Kenma. Kenma is.

He types out a quick apology to Yamamoto, along with a promise to get there soon, before walking to school.

He can’t believe he forgot.

Today is the first day of his life without Kuroo.

It’s incredibly weird to enter the volleyball clubroom and not have Kuroo’s familiar presence. Instead, Yamamoto is already trying to lead them into practice. Fukunaga offers Kenma a smile. Inouka and Lev are eagerly trading jokes and stories with Shibayama between them. There’s a clear absence of Yaku’s aggressive mothering, Kai’s gentle comfort and warm smiles, and Kuroo’s…well, Kuroo’s everything.

If Kenma were being honest, he’d say that it felt almost empty. As if there was a void in the clubroom that only Kenma could feel. After all, no one else seemed to pay it any mind. So Kenma just changes quietly, puts his uniform away, and gets ready for their first volleyball practice without ~~Kuroo~~ their seniors. 

It doesn't mean anything. Kenma knew this was coming. 

Yaku’s visiting practice today, much to Lev’s delight. It’s only been a week of practice without him, and Lev is already acting like Yaku’s returning from the dead or something.

“Yaku-san!” he practically wails, scooping up their former libero in his arms. Yaku shouts something about giants and stupid aces, but Lev’s burying his face in Yaku’s hair, and that, oddly enough, makes Yaku shut up.

“I missed you!” Lev declares.

Something soft and warm flickers across Yaku’s face, and he gently entangles himself from Lev’s arms. “You’ve been practicing receives, right?” he asks, and when Lev enthusiastically tells him that yes, of course he has, Yaku’s reaching up and ruffling Lev’s hair. Lev beams.

Kenma seeks out Kuroo, so he can give him a side-eye or something, but Kuroo doesn’t meet his gaze. In fact, he’s nowhere to be found.

Right.

Kuroo isn’t here. He wishes his brain would the the memo already: no Kuroo. Not anymore. 

Yamamoto shoots a look at him, and Kenma just shakes his head and smiles tightly.

Yaku flits about practice. He swaps tips with Shibayama and ruffles his hair, too, and gives Inouka praise and high-fives and head pats, and overall is a comforting, if slightly aggressive presence. Lev only gets kicked, like, twice. Yaku pats Kenma’s head too and reminds him that he always will be Nekoma’s brain. Kenma watches as Yaku talks to everyone. It’s as if he never left.

It helps fill the pervasive hole in Kenma’s mind. Sort of.

He spends the first half of practice pretending like Kuroo stepped out and it’s just a normal practice. It’s not enough to fill the strange void in his chest, so he switches tactics and reminds himself of all the ways that this is a new year and Kuroo is gone, gone, gone.

Kai isn’t here either, Kenma tells himself. It is a different year, after all. Kuroo’s absence is fine. Kenma always knew it was coming. That’s what happens when your friend’s a year older than you.

It’s just that he feels like he’s lost a piece of himself, now that Kuroo’s not here.

Yaku calls out, “Nice receive!” and Kenma shakes his head. He should at least try to focus on volleyball.

“Kenma-san,” Lev says in the middle of a practice, and he’s oddly serious for once, which tells Kenma that there’s something important weighing on his mind. “Do you talk to Kuroo?”

Kenma blinks at him. What does Lev mean by that? Why wouldn’t Kenma talk to Kuroo? Why does Lev want to know?

“…why do you care?” Kenma asks finally.

Fukunaga, oddly, is the one who comes over and gently tugs Lev away. Lev protests, whining, “Fukunaga, come on, I was just taking a break,” but Kenma doesn’t really process any of it.

He can’t stop thinking about Lev’s question. Does he talk to Kuroo?

Of course he does. He responds to Kuroo’s messages whenever he gets the chance.

But…well…he hasn’t texted Kuroo first, has he? 

He frowns and spins the volleyball between his hands. He really should stop zoning out during practice.

It’s been about two weeks since Kenma was late to his third year because he was waiting for Kuroo to show up. He should be used to it by now: the quiet walks to school, the sudden lack of someone telling him to eat vegetables, the way no one takes his games away from him when he’s played too much.

And yet, somehow, in the strange silence, the weird ache in Kenma’s chest has only gotten worse in the wake of Kuroo’s absence.

Yamamoto shoots him another glance. He’s been doing that a lot lately.

Kenma turns away. Just because Lev wanted to ask him about Kuroo a few days ago doesn’t mean that Kenma had to think about Kuroo. He’s supposed to be moving on. Kuroo left; Kenma has to…adjust. That’s all there is to it.

He’ll get used to it.

It’s been three weeks without Kuroo (not that Kenma was counting or anything), so really, Kenma should have accepted and adjusted to this new reality and moved on.

Instead, he finds himself lying awake in bed, haunted by the way Kuroo would shove his face in between his pillows whenever Kenma wanted to stay up late and game. It’s been far too quiet without Kuroo, which isn’t something Kenma ever thought he’d be…upset about.

And yet he is.

Kenma frowns. Kuroo was a constant presence, loud, always dragging him places, making him do things that he wasn’t sure he cared to do. And yet, having him by his side was as natural as breathing.

Kenma would just have to figure out how to live without him. It’s been three weeks. He’s behaving like a child. These thoughts are getting him nowhere, and he’s spent far too long thinking about Kuroo for it to be entirely healthy.

He throws off his covers and fumbles around for his Playstation. If he can’t sleep, he might as well get in some games.

Kenma scowls and squints at the screen as it lights up, ignoring the tiny voice in his head (the one that sounds suspiciously like Kuroo) telling him that he needs to sleep.

He’s going to ruin his vision one of these days. Good. Then he won’t have to seek out Kuroo whenever he’s nervous, because he’ll simply be too blind to see people.

“We’re holding an intervention,” Yamamoto declares at lunch the next day. Fukunaga nods seriously beside him.

Kenma snorts. “I don’t need an intervention.”

“I beg to differ,” Yamamoto replies.

“Then beg.” It slips out without much thought. It’s what he would say to Kuroo whenever Kuroo wanted him to eat instead of playing video games.

Yamamoto gasps. “Kenma!”

Fukunaga bursts into laughter, which surprises both of them. Kenma doesn’t think he’s ever heard Fukunaga laugh like that before. Judging from the look of shock on Yamamoto’s face, he hasn’t heard Fukunaga laugh either.

“Sorry.” Fukunaga smiles his little cat-like grin. “Lev will be here soon.”

Kenma scowls. “I’m not talking to Lev about this.”

“So, you agree,” Yamamoto says. “There’s something you need to talk about.”

Fuck.

“I’m not talking to Lev about whatever it is you think needs intervention,” Kenma amends. Ugh, he’s exhausted. He should not have stayed up so late last night.

“…But you’d talk to us about it?” Yamamoto asks, gesturing between him and Fukunaga.

Fuck. Kenma is going to murder Yamamoto one of these days.

He can feel his scowl grow deeper. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Kenma! Yamamoto! Fukunaga!” Lev’s cheerful voice cuts through the air, much too loud and bright for Kenma. Kenma sort of wants to smack him. “Hello!”

“I do not need an intervention,” Kenma says before Lev can say anything else.

Lev tilts his head in confusion. “But Yaku-san said you did.”

Wait.

What?

“That’s not Yamamoto,” Kenma says, like an idiot. He’s clearly too sleep-deprived for this shit.

“Well, I talked to Yaku-san about it,” Lev replies, like it should be obvious. And, considering who Lev is, it makes sense, Kenma supposes. Lev treats Yaku like he’s the smartest person in the room. “I figured that whatever was going on was your business and if you wanted to talk about it, then you would. Yamamoto thought we needed to intervene, but it didn’t sit right with me, so I asked Yaku-san about it–because he always has the all answers–and Yaku-san agreed with Yamamoto that we needed to do something.” Lev’s brows scrunch together. “But I can’t remember what that something was.”

Yamamoto smacks his head onto the table. Kenma would laugh if it wasn’t for the fact that they’re currently staging an intervention for him.

“Oh.” Kenma frowns. “Why did Yaku think I needed something?”

Lev brightens at that. “He said that you were too quiet at practice when he visited!”

“I’m always quiet.” Kenma really wishes he could be anywhere else right now.

And if that somewhere just happened to be Kuroo’s arms–

Stop it, Kenma. He’s supposed to be moving on. No more obsessing over Kuroo.

Lev just smiles. “Yaku-san isn’t normally wrong, you know?”

“Are you being cryptic right now?” Kenma asks. “That’s just creepy.”

Yamamoto scoffs. “The point is, you miss Kuroo, and it’s starting to affect how you play. So, we want to make sure that you’re okay. You’re our friend.”

“I don’t miss Kuroo,” Kenma blatantly lies. As soon as the words leave his mouth, he winces at just how unconvincing they sound.

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard you say.” Surprisingly, it’s Fukunaga who says that. “Aren’t you supposed to be the team brain?”

“You’re weirdly talkative today,” Kenma retorts.

Fukunaga just shrugs, refusing to rise to the bait. He gives Kenma a Look though, the sort that says that he is not buying his bullshit.

Which, okay, that’s fair; even Kenma doesn’t believe his own bullshit.

“This isn’t about him; it’s about you,” Yamamoto half-snarls, half-growls. Clearly, he’s getting angry. Kenma smirks inwardly. Good. Piss him off enough and maybe he’ll leave him alone. “And what do you mean, you don’t miss Kuroo?”

“It’s okay to miss Kuroo,” Lev says. “I miss Yaku-san all the time.”

“That’s different.” Kenma looks down at his food. “Are we done yet?”

“No!” Yamamoto slams his palms on the table. “As captain, it’s my duty to look after all the players on the Nekoma Volleyball Team!”

“You sound like Kuroo.” Kenma gives him a baleful glare. “You’re not him.”

“I promised to look after you while he was gone!” Yamamoto declares.

“Yaku-san and I might not be dating, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t miss him,” Lev says at the same time.

There’s too much in the implications of _that_ for Kenma to handle right now. He holds a finger up and shushes Yamamoto, fixing his gaze on Lev.

“What do you mean, you and Yaku aren’t dating?” he demands.

Lev shrugs. “Well, I confessed, but I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, so I told him that it doesn’t matter and that he doesn’t need to think about it. So, while our situations are different,” He flaps his hand between him and Kenma, and Kenma feels dread pool in his gut. Something isn’t adding up here. “Yaku-san is still the person I like and he’s gone now, so of course I miss him.”

Kenma blinks. Lev likes Yaku (okay, they all knew that one, except for Yaku). Lev also says that he and Kenma have different situations.

He must be more exhausted than he thought, because he asks, “Do…do you think me and Kuroo are dating?”

“Aren’t you?” Lev asks.

Kenma stares at Lev, who gazes back at him, green eyes wide and unblinking, patiently waiting for Kenma to work out whatever it is he’s going to say. “He’s my best friend,” Kenma finally says. The words ring hollowly in his ears.

Kuroo is so much more than that.

Yamamoto groans. “Lev, don’t scare him. We know that you and Kuroo are best fri–”

“I want more,” Kenma blurts out. He blames this admission on his sleepy state and the fact that he desperately wants all of them to shut up and leave him alone. “I want. More. But I can’t have it.”

“Why not?” Lev asks.

Kenma looks at his hands. Why not?

Why not?

He thinks of Kuroo feeding him vegetables and wrapping his hand around his and tugging him to different places and draping his jacket over his shoulders whenever he gets cold and scolding him whenever he got lost. He hears Kuroo’s stupid hyena cackle and the loud snores that escaped him when his face was buried in between his pillows and Kuroo’s breathing coming out in ragged gasps when he’s tired from a good game of volleyball and the gentle care with which Kuroo says, “Kenma” like his name is something precious. He feels Kuroo’s hand on his wrist, making sure he doesn’t get lost and he sees Kuroo’s back in front of him as he leads them home.

Kuroo has always been there, for most of Kenma’s life, long enough that Kenma can barely recall a time when Kuroo wasn’t there.

And the sudden _absence_ feels larger than Kenma ever imagined.

“I had a decade to tell him how I felt,” Kenma whispers. “I had so many chances and I didn’t take a single one.”

It’s quiet. Kenma braves a glance at his friends. Yamamoto looks stricken. Lev looks like he’s about to cry. And Fukunaga is…smiling, but it’s one that droops at the corners, and there’s definitely sadness in his eyes.

Kenma looks back down at his food. “I don’t feel like eating,” he says softly. “I’m going to go.”

It’s Fukunaga who grabs his wrist before reaching out and snatching Kenma’s phone. He taps around a little, before sliding it over to Kenma.

His conversation with Kuroo is on screen, shining up at him. Kuroo’s last message remains unanswered (Crap. He thought he’d responded to that).

“You can still text him, you know,” Yamamoto says, voicing Fukunaga’s unspoken message.

“Yeah,” says Kenma. “I could.”

He could text Kuroo, is the thing. Kenma knows he can. After all, Kuroo’s texted him, multiple times in fact, and Kenma responds (if he remembers to. Sometimes he forgets and then he’s left Kuroo on read for almost a day and he feels insanely guilty as he scrambles to reply, even though Kuroo always says that he doesn’t mind), but Kenma doesn’t _initiate_ , is the thing. And while he may regularly text Shoyo, that’s different. For one thing, he doesn’t see Shoyo on a regular basis. If he wants to talk to Shoyo, he has to text him. For another, Shoyo usually initiates anyways.

He’s never had to text Kuroo before, because Kuroo’s always been there. Kenma isn’t sure that he actually knows how to text Kuroo without it being a reminder for something.

Even then, the reminders are usually sent _from_ Kuroo _to_ Kenma, not the other way around.

So, while Fukunaga and Yamamoto are right, and he really should just text Kuroo already, something prevents him from doing it.

It’s just that every time he tries to say something, he comes up empty, and ends up deleting the text before he hits send.

What would he even say?

Kenma sighs and tosses his phone aside, whatever message that he’s still trying to work out left unsent. He’s still exhausted from staying up too late the night before, so he just lets himself crash into bed and tries not to think of Kuroo and stupid ways to text someone he shouldn’t miss as exhaustion washes over him.   
  


Kenma knows that Yaku is visiting again not because he saw him, but because Lev’s delighted shout of, “Yaku-san!” was loud enough to be heard across campus. Probably. Kenma was only in the clubroom and Lev was probably by the gym, loud and carefree as ever. Kenma shoves his hands in his pockets and walks down to the gym.

He’s just in time to hear Yaku growl, “I’m not short” before roundhouse kicking Lev soundly. Lev crumples to the floor, but he sits up quickly, a wide smile on his face. Kenma smiles softly. With Yaku here, he can pretend that Kuroo will be back soon too. It didn’t work last time, but, well. He can try again.

“You’d think he’d learn,” Kuroo drawls from behind him, and all the hairs on Kenma’s neck stand on end. “It’s been a year and he still hasn’t stopped mentioning Yaku’s height.”

Kenma feels his heart stop. There’s no way.

“Oi, Kenma.” That’s definitely Kuroo’s voice. “You’re blocking the door.”

“Kuroo.” It comes out breathier than Kenma expected, barely a whisper. And yet, Kuroo’s hand touches his shoulder as if he knows. His touch is warm, a gentle presence that Kenma hadn’t noticed was gone until Kuroo gave it back to him.

He looks up, and Kuroo’s stupid (familiar) grin underneath his stupid spiky hair looks back at him.

Kenma cannot believe that he missed him.

“Come on,” Kuroo says, pushing Kenma into the gym. “You have to practice, remember?”

Instead of letting Kuroo shove him around, Kenma wraps his arms around Kuroo and buries his face in his chest. Kuroo stiffens underneath him, before relaxing and wrapping his arms around Kenma in return.

This. Here, Kenma feels safe.

This is what he was missing.

Is it possible for a person to feel like home?

He feels one of Kuroo’s hands start running through his hair. He doesn’t move, just accepts the touch and tries not to melt into Kuroo.

“What’s wrong?” Kuroo asks, soft concern lacing through his words.

“Shut up,” he mumbles. “Just shut up.”

“Oh, you brought him, Yaku!” That’s Yamamoto, who sounds entirely too cheerful. “Perfect! Kenma, this is for your own good!”

“What?” Kuroo sounds confused, and Kenma lifts his head up, curious (and afraid) about what Yamamoto’s talking about.

Yamamoto is beaming the way he does whenever he hits a particularly good spike or whenever he reunites with Tanaka. Kenma hates that grin.

One of these days, he really will kill Yamamoto. His life will be better for it.

“Alright, Kenma, Kuroo,” Yamamoto declares, looking much too cheerful for the occasion. It occurs to Kenma a little too late that he should probably run. “You two go outside and you can’t come back to practice until you tell Kuroo why you’ve been all sad lately.”

“I haven’t been sad,” Kenma lies, though it sounds ridiculous even to his own ears.

Fukunaga and Shibayama give him their most deadpan stares. Lev and Inuoka wear twin expressions of surprise and confusion. Yamamoto’s face palm is audible. Even Yaku puts his hands on his hips and arches an eyebrow. 

“Kenma. This is part two of your intervention!” Yamamoto shouts. “Ugh, help me shove them out! And Kuroo! Make sure Kenma tells you why he’s been sad!”

“I don’t want to tell Kuroo,” Kenma grumbles. Kuroo’s arms tense when he says that, which...means something; Kenma isn’t just sure what. “Besides, I told you the reasons at lunch the other day. Intervention over.”

“No, this is part two, the part where you tell Kuroo,” Yamamoto replies.

“No.” Kenma scowls. “I’m not ready.”

“You’ll never truly be ready, no matter how much you prepare,” Lev says, appearing from behind Yaku. “But you wanted to talk to him! This is your chance!”

Kuroo grabs his hand and squeezes it, gently. “Alright, alright,” he says. “I’ll talk to Kenma. Come on.”

The last bit is directed at Kenma. Kenma swallows his protests and follows Kuroo out of the gym. As he leaves, he spots Yamamoto giving him a thumbs-up.

Kenma glares in response.

It’s too quiet outside the gym. Kenma silently follows Kuroo over to a quiet spot, trying to figure out how best to say…this…as he does so.

How does he go about saying that he misses Kuroo more than he should? He always knew this was coming.

“So.” Kuroo shoves his hands in his jacket. “Why is everyone saying you’re going to tell me why you’re sad?”

“They staged an intervention,” Kenma replies.

“Uh huh.” Kuroo folds his arms over his chest and gives Kenma his best I’m-not-mad-just-disappointed stare. Kenma’s been on the receiving end of that stare a lot. It stopped being effective two years ago (that’s another lie. He doesn’t like disappointing Kuroo). “What’s wrong?”

Kenma ducks behind his hair, but he can still feel Kuroo staring at him, waiting for him to say something.

In his mind, he can hear Lev asking him if he missed Kuroo. Oddly enough, it’s _just_ Lev’s voice in his head right now. Kenma hears him asking if he missed Kuroo, questioning if he talked to him. “You’ll never truly be ready,” Lev’s voice adds.

Kenma looks down at his feet, before shifting his gaze back to Kuroo.

“But you wanted to talk to him! Now’s your chance!” Imagination-Lev says. Kenma wants to punch him. Maybe he’ll convince Yaku to kick him again, later.

Kuroo’s still looking at him, curious, concerned. Kenma knows that Kuroo won’t force him to say anything, but he will stare him down until Kenma gets uncomfortable enough to spill out whatever is bothering him.

Here goes everything.

He still doesn’t even know what to say.

Kenma takes a deep breath, and blurts out the first thing that comes to mind, which is, “I like you.”

Kuroo blinks. “I should hope so,” he replies. “We’re best friends.”

“Not. Not like that.” Kenma twists his hands together. How does he get Kuroo to understand? “I…like you.”

He can’t stand to see Kuroo’s face as he says that.

“Like. More than friends,” he adds softly, staring at the ground. An ant crosses into his line of vision. He watches it walk along the pavement.

“What about Shrimpy?” Kuroo asks.

Kenma frowns. He looks up at Kuroo, who stares back at him, cheeks flushed, eyebrows furrowed, mouth drawn in a thin line.

“What about Shoyo?” Kenma asks.

Kuroo scowls and runs his hand through his hair, making the stupid black spikes stick up more than they already were. Stupid Kuroo. Stupid Kenma, for liking Kuroo like that.

“I thought you liked Hinata,” Kuroo says, and it’s the fact that Kuroo’s calling him Hinata, instead of Shrimpy, that tells Kenma that there’s definitely _something_ , some insecurity there that Kuroo isn’t mentioning.

“Shoyo’s my best friend,” Kenma says, which, yeah, Shoyo is. He and Shoyo text all the time. It’s much easier than whatever he and Kuroo have. “You’re not.”

Kuroo flinches at that, before smoothing his face back into something neutral yet confused. Kenma sighs. He wants to get this over with.

“I want more. I want you to be my boyfriend,” Kenma explains, words running together in their haste to leave his mouth and make Kuroo understand.

There. Kuroo’s eyes widen comically and his face turns red extremely fast and his jaw actually drops. He blinks rapidly a few times, just staring at Kenma like he can’t quite believe what he just heard.

“You look stupid like that,” Kenma informs him after Kuroo’s made it clear that he’s just going to gape at him like a fish instead of, you know, actually responding and putting Kenma out of his misery.

“Is this real?” Kuroo asks.

Kenma frowns. It feels like he’s been doing that a lot lately. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I thought you had a crush on Hinata,” Kuroo repeats, as if that explains everything.

“You thought wrong.” What isn’t Kuroo getting about this?

Kuroo continues as if he hadn’t spoke. “But you looked so happy whenever you saw him. I thought…I thought that as long as you were happy, my feelings wouldn’t matter.”

“What are you talking about.”

"I thought that if I could just stay by your side, it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t like me,” Kuroo blurts out, his words picking up speed now. “You smiled more around Hinata and he had a way of getting you fired up for volleyball that I never could manage. And I figured that if he could make you smile, then it didn’t matter if you never liked me back because I would still be in your life and I would know that you were happy. So long as I was your best friend, it would be okay.”

“You thought I liked Shoyo,” Kenma repeats. “But you liked me?”

“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, so I wasn’t going to tell you,” Kuroo says. “And like I said: if Hinata made you happy, then I wasn’t going to interrupt that. You didn’t need to be burdened with my feelings.”

“Go out with me.” Kenma feels a smile tugging on his lips. “I want to go out with you, Kuroo.”

Kuroo grins. It’s his stupid smirk of a smile, the one that crosses his face whenever he’s particularly pleased with the result of something. Kenma usually sees it after they’ve successfully pulled off a risky move on court. “I’ll take you wherever you like, Kenma,” he promises.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Kenma says, and he reaches out, and grabs Kuroo’s hand.

It feels like home. Kenma never wants to let go. 

**Author's Note:**

> they didn't even kiss smh 
> 
> yeah uhhh the way this is just. yearning. loosely held together by some semblance of a plot. wow. 
> 
> i dont rlly have anything else to say but uhhh check out the rest of the cool stuff ppl made for haikyuu week [here!](https://haikyuuweek2020.tumblr.com/) and u can find me on tumblr [here](https://conartisthaiji.tumblr.com/) if ur so inclined. thanks for reading and i hope u have a good day ^_^


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